A TROUBLED club linked with a 150-person brawl will be allowed to keep its license, despite residents' pleas.

The Crystal Lounge in Loughton High Road will have its closing time brought forward to 1.30am from 2am on a Friday and Saturday after the district council reviewed its license at a hearing today (Monday).

It will have to stop serving alcohol at 1am and its owners will have to comply with several other conditions, including meeting with neighbours every four months and putting door staff on patrol outside the club for an hour after closing time.

But people living nearby say this is not enough.

High Beech Road resident Mark Pidgeon, 62, who was at part of the hearing, said neighbours who had suffered sleepless nights because of noise outside the club had been ignored.

“Everybody is so against this place,” he added. “I think the council's just gone soft in the head, because (the earlier closing time) won't stop the issues.

“You can see the pleading from everybody and I think it's just quite disappointing. You don't get any true justice.”

Another High Beech resident, Doreen Reeve, 74, said: “I think a midnight closing time would be easier to live with and I know other people do.

“The noise goes on to 2am or 3am. Last weekend, there was a terrible row down there and the police were out.

“You're still going to get a nuisance up until a certain time.”

Documents presented as part of the evidence in today's hearing showed the police had been called to the bar 15 times since February 2010.

They attended 11 violent incidents there, including one where a man was left unconscious outside with some of his teeth broken off.

More than 40 people living near the club called for it to be closed or have it's opening hours reduced by two hours in a recent survey by ward councillor James Hart.

Violence spilled out onto the street on November 20, when 150 people were seen fighting further along the High Road after a disturbance in the club.

Loughton inspector Tom Simons asked the district council to review the license after this, claiming the bar's 2am closing time was liked to the violence.

But he said the club's owner, Amit Kumar Kundwa, had told him just before the hearing that he would agree to the earlier opening hours, so he withdrew his objections.

“I felt the main driver was reduced opening hours and reducing the pressure on police between 2am and 3am,” he said. “I have to be fair to both businesses and residents in the area and proportionate in what I ask for.”

The Guardian has asked Mr Kumar Kundwa to comment.